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Well, if you do have to look else where Steve, I have to say this has been well taken care of for me with ACP... I cannot recommend it high enough really (I know we've discussed before and oh yes those costs do mount up!!). It is so well documented and the support is excellent. I've worked for big companies in IT and worked for big customers of IT. So I've seen support from both sides. The support for ACP is at that level in comparison, if not higher. There are a multitude of components to make work together in what we are doing. Now, having said that I've noticed a couple of times recently that my meridian flip has stalled. ACP thinks its slewing but the mount hasn't moved. I haven't had the time to go back through all the logs & see if theres anything.. I certainly noticed nothing at the time. Luckily it was when i was watching, I think it may have been on the same target. I was so desperate to maximise clear sky I just resubmitted the plan & off it went happy. If this has happened before during the night when I'm asleep then I've been unaware. ACP must have sorted it out on it's own.. there must be a timeout. Certainly as far as guiding goes ACP will restart as necessary.

Yeah well done.. I was just looking through them.. Fantastic stuff when you think how far the bar has been pushed in a relatively short time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Mike.. Well, it's a dome so already "vulnerable" as it's pretty obvious what it is.. you cant really disguise it to attract less attention like a shed. So, if it were me, I'd tend to do both... and more. I'd want to deter by making it obvious that security was taken seriously and multiple measures were in place. I'd try and make it as physically hard/annoying & time consuming to break in as possible, giving you more time to respond to detection by the above mentioned obvious (and hidden non obvious) security measures. Once they're in I'd make their stay as unpleasant ( and surprising ) as possible. Once they've gone you'll want to have some nice snaps & video of their foolhardy escapade to parade on "You've been framed", "CrimeWatch" or < "insert your favourite social media here" >

Here's something to consider with placement of the CloudWatcher. I've never had this "problem" before as I've usually packed up for summer having lost Astronomical darkness by the time it's got this warm. It was 19c when I got home from work tonight. The leading edge of the roof (covered in black rubber) faces west so has the last of the sun. My Cloudwatcher is mounted on a support at the end of the runoff so the roof comes within a foot of it when it opens. As you can see the heat from it has caused it to read cloudy when its clear. So when ACP Scheduler opened the roof tonight it imediately got an unsafe & closed up. I've just set the unsafe to be overcast for now as you can see it is pretty sensitive.. I'm going to have to move it.

There's probably a fair variation in component tolerances between units. Certainly, going by the variations in settings I've seen posted on the yahoo support group, I don't think any two units will setup the same. I've taken a note of the real conditions & compared to what the AAG was showing then tweaked to suit. There are still occasions when it may show overcast & its actually clear.. seems to be when the air temp is unseasonally warm. It has been stable over this winter with these settings but I have noticed it needs adjusting during the seasonal changes. It was fairly stable over last summer but I had to tweak fairly constantly over 2 or 3 months of Autumn. I was expecting to need the same over Spring but not noticed yet. Mind I probably won't bother changing anything anyway as I've normally stopped imaging by the end of April into May as we rapidly start running out of astro darkness.

Very nifty Steve.. way cheaper than my alarm dialler implementation, although it also serves as a backup to the main house alarm too.. As promised here's my current settings for the CloudWatcher... a year on of tweaking.

For power & sensor control I decided to use these.. http://tienda.lunatico.es/epages/Store.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.Lunatico/Products/ACNSEL03 http://tienda.lunatico.es/epages/Store.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.Lunatico/Products/ACNSELFL I had thought about building my own and trying to write Ascom drivers for it all but decided I just don't have the time. They have Ascom drivers & so are supported by just about if not all the software that would be discussed here. Network or USB connectivity and scriptable control/monitoring. I've been using the lightwave control system around the house for some time & used that for a while to control power in the Obsy but it's not really easily incorporated into the Obsy automation. http://www.lightwaverf.co.uk/ With the Platypus/Firefly I can automate switching & sensors for individual components/configurations. For instance I have 3 Atiks. Normally with them all connected the software ( Maxim in this case ) will pop up a dialogue box to select which one (serial number) to use but if this is on auto connect with ACP its a pain. So currently I have 2 imaging setups on the mount. I switch configurations depending if I'm using the Esprit or the SCT & this is easily scriptable selecting which power relays to engage. Same with shutting down, closing roof & turning on the humidifier for instance. You can also have this dependant on what the state of the sensor inputs are too.. if the mount parked sensor is not closed then "do not close the roof" "do something else" for example. I can even use it as another method to detect intrusion. I have several independent alarm systems/methods . Thats something else to consider as part of automation.. Arming/Disarming. Do you still want monitoring when the Obsys in use? I do.. I'm able to differentiate between normal movement of the operating Obsy and movement of an intruder.. (or cat). Not wanting to give too much away here.. . You'll also want cameras to see whats going on too. Also, USB simulation of resetting a device via the disable/enable in the drivers doesn't always work. I've found being able to switch an individual powered hub useful to clear this issue. Otherwise the only way to reset the device/port is to go and unplug/plug the cable back in! EDIT: I should add, I'm talking about switching 12v DC & 240v AC levels here. You should be comfortable with handling/working with MAINS wiring, otherwise get a qualified electrician to do this.. please!

Just a quick reply for now as supposed to be working [emoji4] When I evaluated CCDComander it was against SGPro & at the time I was more interested in getting the multi imager setup working. With the promise of dual dither support in a future release of SGPro I went down that route. So you may be right. I'll need to have another look although I don't recall it being obvious.. Maybe some scripting required? You can simulate any weather conditions by going into the "unsafe" tab in the AAG software & clicking/selecting what u want to open/close the relay. You can unselect all if you need to. All you are doing is setting what conditions open & close the relay. Happy to share & help with settings. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great write up Steve, (although you are a bit of a dab hand at this). Somehow I think this will a popular thread, pulling all the info together like this. Took me quite a while to untangle the options & working out if this will work with that when I was researching mine. I would like to say, that I do think setting up automation for a UK based Obsy has its own challenges with our weather systems. Depending on what level of automation you are happy to achieve. Now this is something I hadn't appreciated until I tried this. If you don't mind me going on a bit I'll explain. I would like to clarify "Fully Automated" as it has different meanings to people. It also helps to explain the wildly differing costs between the software. When we think "Automation" there's quite a variation of an individuals expectation of how much user input will be required. When I tested with some of the options listed, it became clear that the fickle nature of our weather (well, up here in Scotland anyway) would cut short the majority of sessions due to a few minutes of bad weather. With all of the software options listed (as far as I could work out) ALL of them will require user intervention to restart the session once they have shut down & made safe the Obsy. So, what do you do if you want to make the most of a totally clear night apart from that 10 minutes of cloud passing over, 5 minutes after you went to bed, that killed the guiding & closed the roof? Well, there are ways you can set an alarm system to wake you. Or you can just get up & check at periods through the night. I'm sure our other halfs wouldn't mind being woken up life's too short for sleep anyway. Well, I know mine would be even shorter if I woke her up! As far as I could tell there's only two "off the shelf" products that can handle the repeated stop & starts of the good 'ol British weather. That's CCDAutopilot or ACP Scheduler (Note. It's the Scheduler add on in conjunction with ACP. NOT the standard ACP as mentioned). I never got around to trying CCDAutopilot because I tried ACP first & it did what I wanted. Sorry to go on a bit, I felt it important to get this over as I invested time (a year or so) & money going about things the wrong way to maximise sky time (triple shooter) in my opinion. I hope it's useful to others. I do believe Automation is the way to go for any serious imager with an Obsy. Incidentally, talking of weather. The AAG_CloudWatcher is a great bit of kit. Having run mine for about a year now I think perhaps the British climate requires it needs a bit of tweaking to get right, especially noticeable as the seasons change.

I am really intrigued.. but please.. please.. I don't want to be the one that gets this thread shut down. Err.. the Tattoo. How did that come out exactly?

Been trying to think of something to say.... that would convey. But... Jaw... meets floor! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's something you have to enjoy doing when you're doing it for yourself & not for financial reward! I decided after a few attempts to go & try that certain "astro software". It made my eyes water even more than the cost when I realised how much of the guys life had gone into it! Best decision I made though, not having enough years left in me to write "a bunch of scripts" that would come anyway near! You still have to customise & script a bit to fine tune though.So, I take my hat off to you. You've come a long way with this. Make sure you reward yourself that sense of achievement & enjoy. It's not a trivial undertaking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Excellent.. one of those rare "astro" solutions that didn't involve yet more financial investment too..

Might be easier to set up a LAN using something USB powered like these... http://www.ebuyer.com/660634-startech-portable-wireless-n-wifi-travel-router-access-point-repeater-ap150wn1x1u http://www.ebuyer.com/343320-tp-link-tl-wr702n-wireless-n150-mini-pocket-router-tl-wr702n

Excellent approach, prove it in a test environment before rolling out to production. It's only when you tackle something like this you realise the enormity of the prep & planning for something that actually leaves the earth!

Oh I understand completely... hey, my obsy is in the back garden & more than 3 years on I'm still finishing it & still not ready for autonomous operation.. (but getting closer). At least if it goes wrong I can run out to sort it! I think there's quite a few on here that have fingers crossed for you... & many that are learning from you too

Got to admire the perseverance on this.. been following since the start.. what.. almost a year ago? Glad you've had some break in this really naff August weather & really looking forward to First Light